Completing the quest by unlocking content

I'm interested in setting up easter egg/bonus content that can be unlocked by completing optional activities in a course. It's more like quests in that students are working toward discovering a "key" (key is the name of the things they are collecting in the course). I'd like some feedback on my idea for how I can accomplish some of this unlocking bonus content.

Background

The course is a Science Fiction and Fantasy course, so what better place to incorporate some quest-like elements especially since the main text (The Diamond Age) involves the main character in search of 12 keys. The course is setup as at-your-own-pace (within 3 months) and choose-your-own-adventure in deciding which 3 out of 9 other lessons (first lesson is mandatory for everyone) to complete. The mandatory assignments are (choice of) essays at the end of each lesson students complete for a total of 4 essays and a final project (boss battle/ultimate quest!!) at the end.

Possible solution

Some of the keys available to students will become available after they complete let's say 4 optional book reviews. These book reviews are discussion posts in 4 separate forums. So, I was thinking I could group those forums into a module called Book Reviews (easy name!) and then set up another module called Bonus Content (too obvious a name?) with a prerequisite that Book Reviews is complete. Does that make sense?

And to encourage these book reviews, I am thinking I should have them listed in the module that features the book. In essence, I want to list the same activity in 2 different modules. Near as I can tell, as long as both modules are published students will be able to see these activities. Is there a better way to set up the "unlock content" feature?

Other implementation ideas

Some of the keys available will also come from completing surveys/quizzes that are not located in any modules, but with the links hidden under Togglers, Modals, or only visible on phone-size screen. I know that even if I hide quizzes, assignments, discussions from the main navigation, students will still be able to see these activties in their gradebook view, but I think I want that so they are motivated to find these keys. Do these ideas sound reasonable?

Please note

Since there is student choice in which lessons to complete, I plan to have multiple opportunities to get some of the same keys.

The course is setup as points based so the XP is the grade at the end; collecting the keys will equal some small amount of XP. I believe this key-quest is a fair way to give extra credit for extra work in the course.

Of course, I'm just the instructional designer. The actual instructor may decide it's too much fuss for the course, but if there's any course that is begging for game elements is this one. Hey, the other designers and I got giddy thinking about levels and XP points in the course.

Thanks in advance for any feedback y'all can provide. I'm sorry I don't how how to list links to other articles (yet) otherwise I would have added links to the Using jQuery without Custom Javascript thread that is a goldmine of wonderful Canvas tidbits.

One thing that I have experimented with and students really enjoyed, was a "Find the Password" unlock for a quiz. Quizzes can be individually locked by requiring a password to be entered to access it, and in my case it was designed as an introduction to navigating the Canvas environment. Students saw the quiz, saw they couldn't take it, then read the instructions (isn't that always the case? ) about having to find a specific page in a module where a friendly monster would give them the password. Yeah, this was for grad students;p We also had an "ask anything" discussion where they could post any q. and got a whole string of "someone leak the password, I got to get the points for this assignment!", and "I got it! That was really fun!"-type of comments.

If the 4 book reviews are individually graded, the student could be sent a message with the password in it, and directions on how to locate the locked quiz.

The Book Reviews/Bonus Content sounds like it would work well, also.

Other Implementation ideas: "students will still be able to see the activities in gradebook..." You want them to see the activities, or they won't bother spending time to find them. Think about popular video games. They have lists of badges or achievements that you can earn, and a majority of them are shown by greying out the achievement icon, only coloring it in when earned. This is something I regret not doing for my gamified class, mostly because I was designing the badges as we went along, so I had no idea what they were either;p

Also "hidden"-ish links, I found out that there is an Android App bug that will break page links out of the modules. In other words, if you link are trying to get the student to a whole module via a link instead of the app navigation, it will only take the student to the single page not the whole module. Try to design around that if the course is heavily mobile oriented.

Some students will want to collect all the keys (completionists) so instead of having several of the same kind, is there a way to have them fit together some how...

I like the password idea. Is there a way that the password can be automatically given to them if they've earned a certain amount of xp and completed a certain number of "quests"/modules or would I have to manually provide the pw? Also, is there a way to just leave a quiz as more of a story that they just read? I'm considering making somewhat of a comic book adventure. If they get so many xp and modules open, it leads them to the next part of the story/comic strip. I'm still working out the ending, though. I'd like for there to be different endings depending on their xp and module completion. Basically, if they have an A, it'll end one way, B's will end another way, and so on. Not sure how to make this happen, but working on it and I think these passwords might be the key. So now I have another question. Is there a way to set a point prerequisite for opening modules?

Q1. "Is there a way that the password can be automatically given to them if they've earned a certain amount of xp and completed a certain number of "quests"/modules or would I have to manually provide the pw?"

Hmm...not that I know of. You might look at the auto generated e-mails from the Gradebook. Using that you might be able to create an auto-deliver situation, but it isn't something that I have any experience with. "Messaging students who scored more than ___" could send them a quiz password, and maybe even a link? Read up here to learn more about this feature: How do I send a message to my students from the Gradebook?

Q2. "...is there a way to just leave a quiz as more of a story that they just read?"

I think just messing about with the quiz format will answer this one for you. I know that you can leave parts of it solely text, so...possibly? Maybe make it worth a small portion of points by having the students answer inconsequential questions to get to the rest of the story. (like "Are you ready to start the Investigation? A.Yes B. No") You can also embed content (like short movies or presentations that continue the story) so don't think it can only be text!

Q3. "Is there a way to set a point prerequisite for opening modules?"

Again, not that I know of. You can set a barrier assignment that has to be completed before the next module unlocks. By editing the module settings ---> "Edit Module Settings>Requirements>Student Must complete one of these>Assignment>score at least ___", you can set the next module to unlock once that one is considered complete.

If you could weave the story so that it comes aback together at certain plot points, it would be easier to set it up, module-wise. I can imagine creating a diagram for this to keep everything straight would be an excellent idea! Please keep us updated, this sounds like an incredible Canvas hack;p

Regarding question 2, You can make a quiz that has only one answer and that solves the problem. It's what I do for my "rewards" quizzes/modules. Just write the flavor text and then have one answer only that says something like "You take the reward and continue on your way."

That way there is no possibility of students choosing the "wrong" answer and getting locked out of content.

Just thought I would circle back to this discussion since now I have finished designing the course. I only used Canvas for the assignments, graded with emojis, set the overall grading scheme to show levels, and passwords on quizzes. The passwords are the "keys" the students can collect throughout the course. The keys unlock the quizzes.. get it?

All in all, creating this course was good experience in gamified course design. Last month, while I was still developing the course I was asked to present/share to a group of other instructional designers what I was doing with the course. The main things I highlighted were:

Choose your own adventure

Experience points and emoji

Unlock bonus content

Integrated video

Thematic content

Now all that I'm waiting for is being able to use grading schemes with quizzes and then students will be able to see the 12 keys on their grade sheet. Oh and wonderful that we'll be able to set the course image on the dashboard. I've got an image picked out for that too.

Many thanks to Janell Amely for her course on how to gamify a course and the spreadsheet resource for calculating and setting up the levels in the grading scheme.